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Can mudguards be silent?
I've a new winter bike for this year, and finally gave in and bought one with mudguards 
I took it out for a spin in the rain on Monday, they worked wonderfully but my main take away from the experience was the rattling of the guards over poor road surfaces.
The bike has 28mm tyres fitted so there isn't a ton of clearance between guards and tyres (maybe 2-3mm on each side. The guards are SKS raceblades I think (2017 Canyon Inflite with their recommended guards) so they are meant to be pretty reasonable ones.
From an engineering perspective, the materials involved and the method via which they are fixed to the frame would suggest to me that you are never going to be able to make guards that won't flex a bit under vibration/bumps. Am I right in assuming that some rattling is the price you pay for running mudguards and saving the rest of the bike from getting covered in crap?
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23 comments
Raceblades like the ones in the pic are specced up to 25mm tyres. OP is running 28mm tyres, of course they are goint to rattle and rub.
I've got Raceblades, which I zip-tie on in winter, on the training bike, and full "proper" ones on my cummuter - neither make any noise unless/till I get a leaf jammed up them.
Mudguards; wish more people fitted them for commuting in the winter. Sick of having people in front of me spraying water into my face. If the road's wet, but it's not actually raining, full mudguards KEEP YOU DRY and the sh*t off the bike. It's a 'no brainer' as far as I'm concerned. Just don't get the 'aesthetic', 'not-cool' aspect of not fitting them. Clip-on are at least better than nothing if clearance is an issue. The thing that makes me laugh is fitting a rack and no mudguards!
Mudguards are cool. I certainly find being schooled by a grizzled old chap riding something with mudguards a far more humbling experience than being dropped by someone on even a modest road bike without guards. Not sure why. Just do.
A further ride this morning showed it is actually the front which is rattling - they seem much looser than the rear. I think a little bit of adjustment this weekend will do the trick
I've used SKS Longboards, now on SKS Bluemels. The rattling doesn't really show up unless I'm riding on lots of road acne.
My custom bodge to mitigate the vibrations is a set of rubber washers on the central mounting points. Primarily this was done to combat the crosswise cracking my Longboards got over time. They helped.
SKS chromoplasts here... No rattling even though front disc clearance means I only use 3/4 struts. LOTS of swearing required to fit them.
Mine came with spacers and longer bolts for disc clearance.
I intend to fit my being built Ultimate Commuter with sykes wooden fenders. Fiddleback maple. I'm hoping the solidness of them means no rattleing.
http://www.sykeswoodfenders.com/sykeswoodfenders/sykeswoodfenders.html
Go on, have a little look.
This is what the internet is for
There wasn't really any guidance on fitting them, so I just did what I thought was appropriate (see pic).
So what is the best way to eliminate lateral play in the guards? Increase tension in the plastic by moving the guards further way from the wheels? It seemed to be mostly coming from the rear, which are bolted to the frame on the seat tube and at the brake arch on the seat stays. There's a fair bit of play at the far end though where the thin metal rods are the only thing keeping them aligned.
20170903_121510.jpg
The mudguards you run look a lot like my matte black SKS Bluemels. I run the 53 mm version on my TCX; yours might be narrower.
Kinesis T3 with SKS longboards here... no rattles at all. If you have full mudguards (rather than clip-ons) on a frame with all the proper mounts, they shouldn't make a sound.
Use rubber tap washers between frame and eyelets, metal washers to spread load. Also use thread lock nuts on other side of bolts to stop anything working loose. My guards never rattle or came loose.
What is a winter bike?
A luxury
But I definately seem to wear through components far more quickly on my (previous) winter bike than I ever do on my best bike.
Mine (Tortec Reflectors) on my Faran are absolutely silent at the moment.
Frame has proper fixings in traditional places which may help with this - chainstay bridge, rear brake, fork crown plus eyelets at the bottom the forks.
Every fixing is insulated with either a nylon or plastic washer and the threads are Loctite (blue stuff so semi-permanent hold)
I run them pretty close to 32mm Gravelking SKs and the only noise they make even off road is lumps of gravel pinging off them. Completely silent on the road with very little flex (front has safety clips which offers a little movement).
Early days but other than a spanner check after the first shakedown ride they've not needed adjustment.
My old bike had M:Part Primoplastics and they rattled but the fixings were non-traditional - halfway up fork leg and at right angles, plus mudguard screwed into underside of fork crown. Guards themselves had metal stays feeding into plastic clips and a ton a flex in comparison. They're weren't super loud but were noticeable particularly over some concrete sections of my commute. Then again the whole bike (alu frame, carbon fork) was much noisier. I think a steel frame/fork makes a difference - its by far the quietest bike I've owned. Either that or its because I assembled it with TLC rather than being factory-built.
The frame has all the fixings for the guards, no bodging required. I guess there's probably room to increase the vertical clearance by pushing the guards slightly further away from the wheels - but they are made of fairly flexible plastic and have plenty of give in them when moved by hand. I reckon its horizontal movement that makes the noise, there isn't much clearance between the metal rods and the tyres.
That's likely it - guards are freer to move side to side. With my Tortecs though the stays feeding through the eyebolts effectively fix the guards vertically and horizontally as they're always under tension. There's very little side to side movement.
Much more likely to get quieter guards on a proper winter frame. Bigger clearances. Less to hit.
Agreed, my steel winter bike has all the relevant fittings so the SKS guards are fully bolted on. Doesn't rattle at all normally.
Also I meant to say I think that it depends on both the type of mudguards and the bike as well as how they are fitted.
For example if you have a pure road/race orientated bike which isn't really intended for mudguards but you can get something that can be fitted on then they're much more likely to be rattly because I don't think that they'll be a completely secure fitting.
However if your bike is designed with mudguard use in mind and it has all the right braze ons allowing for mudguards to be securely fitted then that will help to reduce the chance of them being rattly.
That being said I had some of the chromoplastic mudguards in the past and they were very rattly in comparison to my current Portland Design Works metal ones.
Or maybe I've just been lukcy with the current guards on my bike.
I think that to some extent it depends on how they're fitted. My bike was fitted with mudguards from the LBS that I bought it from but following a trip to a specific bike mechanic he took them off saying that they'd not been fitted correctly and he put them back on and they're great.
I've got the PDW Full Metal Fenders and I have to say that I don't notice any rattle.
https://ridepdw.com/collections/fenders/products/full-metal-fenders
I think all mudguards have some rattle. I've been group riding with people who SKS raceblades, Crudguards and SKS Chromoplastics, I myself have MPart primoplastics. From previous experience, all these different have some sort of rattle or rub.